Indirect grill heat yields juicy chicken
My parents just sold our family house of 31 years. One of my earliest foodrelated memories is of my dad making barbecue chicken on his old Weber kettle grill on our driveway while my brothers and I played in the backyard. Even now, I can practically smell it.
So when it came time for me to test a barbecue chicken recipe, I got to grill for my parents, with a bit of assistance from Dad.
I didn't want to stray from the simple sauceand-chicken formula, so I turned to an archive recipe from The Washington Post. I made a few upgrades to create an easy-to-assemble, fromscratch sauce with an indirect cooking strategy that keeps the skin from getting too dark and the meat too dry.
The sauce balanced sweet and heat really well, with a more nuanced spice flavor than you find in ordinary grocery-store bottles. Allowing the chicken to spend most of
its time over indirect heat on the cooler part of the grill kept the meat juicy.
We couldn't remember the last time any of us had made barbecue chicken, but everyone agreed this recipe was a keeper.
CLASSIC BARBECUE CHICKEN
Makes 4 to 6 servings Recipe note: The sauce can be prepared up to 2 weeks in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
For the sauce:
2 cups ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
sauce
½ cup distilled white vinegar 1 tablespoon molasses
½ cup water
3 tablespoons light brown
sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon powdered
mustard
½ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ stick unsalted butter ¼ medium onion, cut into small
dice Classic barbecue chicken
2 medium cloves garlic, minced For the chicken:
4 to 4½ pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces, such as drumsticks, thighs or breast halves (6 pieces total) 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
For the sauce: Combine the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, molasses and water in a large bowl.
Combine the brown sugar, chili powder, powdered mustard, black pepper, salt and cayenne pepper in a small bowl.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the onion and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until barely softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, until soft.
Add the brown-sugar mixture and stir to incorporate; cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant, then add the ketchup mixture and mix well. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered for 20 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture becomes a thickened sauce.
Prepare the grill for indirect heat. If using a gas grill, heat to medium-high (450 degrees). If using a charcoal grill, light the charcoal; when the coals are ready, distribute them on one side of the cooking area. For a medium fire, you should be able to hold your hand about 6 inches above the coals for
4 or 5 seconds. Have ready a spray water bottle for taming any flames.
Season the chicken pieces liberally with salt and pepper. Arrange them skin side down on the direct-heat side of the grill; cook, uncovered, until the skin begins to blacken, 5 to 10 minutes. Use long-handled tongs to move the chicken to the indirect-heat side of the grill, turning the pieces over so they are skin side up. Close the lid; cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until the interior temperature of the thickest part of the meat on each piece (taken away from the bone) registers 155 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. (The meat will not be cooked through; move smaller pieces sooner as needed.)
Liberally coat the skin side with some of the sauce; move the pieces to the direct-heat side of the grill and cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Turn the chicken over, skin side down, coat with more sauce and cook uncovered for 5 minutes.
Turn the chicken over one more time, so the skin side is up. Slather with more sauce. Cook uncovered for 2 minutes or until the chicken registers 165 degrees.
Transfer to a platter; let the chicken rest for 5 minutes. Serve with the remainder of the sauce at the table.
PER SERVING (based on 6 servings, using 1 cup of sauce): 360 calories, 33 g protein,
13 g carbohydrates, 0 fiber, 10 g sugar, 20 g fat (6 g ; saturated), 115 mg cholesterol, 1,740 mg sodium